Michael Wilkinson on the Batman v Superman: Dawn of Justice Costumes

Oscar nominee designer Michael Wilkinson, talks on his costume work for Batman v Superman: Dawn of Justice with Fashionista. Wilkinson explains what Batman v Superman director Zack Snyder wanted for the films when it came to the costumes of the characters, his design for Aquaman and mostly his design Ben Affleck’s Batman suit. He also speaks on the costumes for DC Television such as Arrow, Supergirl and The Flash.

Here are the highlights from the article, to read the full article head over to Fashionista.com:

Zack Snyder, director of “Batman v Superman,” “Man of Steel” and “Justice League” parts one and two, likes to keep his superhero-studded films rooted in the present day. “He really wants these characters to connect directly to our world,” says Wilkinson. “So if you were walking down the street and you came across Superman or Batman — of course it would be startling and powerful — but it could actually happen in our world rather than in a stylized version of our reality.”

Wilkinson says he looks to ancient Greek sculpture, high fashion, video art, and high-tech sports and military apparel for inspiration, and organizes all the imagery into Photoshop collages. To create her mood boards, Byrne does “historical research” on the characters’ origin stories, past portrayals and iterations. “With the superheroes I’ve been doing, the idea is to give them street-cred while paying homage to their roots,” says three-time Oscar winner Colleen Atwood, who designed “The Flash,” “Arrow” and the newly-debuted “Supergirl” costumes. “In Supergirl, I really liked the ‘real’ person side of her character and wanted that to ‘play’ in costume.”

Wilkinson, who’s responsible for designing the new Batsuit for Ben Affleck, says he likes being part of the online discussion. “It’s no longer a designer just in his workroom pushing a costume out into the world and that’s it,” he says. “There’s a real sense of a conversation and engaging in a dialogue about this stuff.” It’s worth pointing out that the recently revised costumes for Batman, Wonder Woman and Aquaman were all unleashed onto the world not through studio press releases, but via director Zack Snyder’s tweets.

Re-imagining Aquaman for his appearances in “Batman v Superman,” “Justice League,” and his own movie in 2018 presented a “huge challenge” for Wilkinson in terms of fan expectations. Or low ones, because, apparently, the superhero’s past interpretations have made him not as “cool” as the other guys. “People have a lot of complaints about the orange skin and the green tights and that whole thing,” said Wilkinson, who actually has a soft spot for superhuman fish-whisperer.

For those old enough to remember Michael Keaton as “Batman” and not “Birdman,” you may recall that the rigid head and neck piece (i.e. the “cowl”) on the Batsuit circa 1989 didn’t allow for the Caped Crusader to turn his head. So, say, if a villain snuck up behind Batman, he had to swing his entire torso around. Yeah, distracting.

For those old enough to remember Michael Keaton as “Batman” and not “Birdman,” you may recall that the rigid head and neck piece (i.e. the “cowl”) on the Batsuit circa 1989 didn’t allow for the Caped Crusader to turn his head. So, say, if a villain snuck up behind Batman, he had to swing his entire torso around. Yeah, distracting.

“That’s actually one of the first things that Snyder mentioned to me in one of our initial meetings,” Wilkinson says. “It’s a very important thing to Zack that the Batsuit would be comfortable and very flexible, but then would be able to perform in a very natural and forceful way. So a lot of incredible engineering went into the development of the new black cowl.”

Source: Fashionista.com